Thursday, December 4, 2008

MILAN — Gucci Group has been pulled into one of Italy’s so-called “spy stories” stemming from an investigation of illicit access to the Ministry of Interior’s data bank.

A Gucci Group spokesman confirmed that the Prosecutor’s Office in Florence this week ordered a search of the company’s offices there and in Milan and Rome. “The search is a result of the investigation on suspicion of the crime of revelation and use of official secrets,” Gucci said in a statement.

The spokesman said Gucci regularly checks on suppliers and its sales network in its fight against counterfeits. “We have a social responsibility,” said the spokesman. “We want our suppliers to respect the workforce, steering clear of child labor, for example, and to commit to regular tax payments.” Gucci, said the spokesman, was unaware of the methods put in place to obtain this information. The investigation has unearthed the fact that, as many private investigators here are former policemen or tax officers, they may have access to secret state or police information.

Yep, spying for social responsibility....I'm sure they never...ever.... spy on the competition.

The arrest of Del Bo is also connected to the investigation of a policeman’s suicide two years ago and to another “spy story” scandal involving wiretaps on numerous peoples’ phones, reportedly including that of Alessandra Facchinetti, Valentino’s former creative director and former head of women’s design at Gucci. As reported in July, the interceptions of phone conversations was discovered in 2006, but were begun 10 years earlier by Giuliano Tavaroli, former chief of security at Italian Telecom, and Marco Mancini, the former number two at the country’s SISMI military intelligence agency. Targets of the illegal domestic surveillance program included politicians, bankers, entrepreneurs, journalists, starlets and soccer players. According to Italian press reports, Facchinetti’s phone conversations were also tapped, although it is unclear for what reasons.

Oviously the loss of privacy is just factored into the cost of doing business in Italy.